


Sweet's Tooth

by LittleLinor



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Everything Is One-sided (Or Is It), Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-04 10:35:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14018400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLinor/pseuds/LittleLinor
Summary: Why Kazumi was so interested in Chrono's tastes, Kazuma didn't realise until it was too late.Alt title: Chrono Shindou And The Case Of The Many Mysterious Chocolates





	Sweet's Tooth

It was the beginning of February, the few days in which you could delude yourself into thinking that January was over and that it was about to get warmer until the rest of February slammed into you with its harsh reality, and Kazuma was, to put it mildly, 'freezing his ass off'.  
The blame lay with his older brother. Kazumi had made the decision, not too long ago, to switch to public transport entirely, and while it made meeting up feel more natural, it also meant that Kazumi regularly got lost or distracted while trying to navigate particularly complex or lively connection hubs.  
It was kind of endearing, and Kazuma wouldn't have minded if he wasn't _dying_.  
“Kazuma!”  
_Oh, finally_.  
“You're late,” he tried to grumble at Kazumi, but as usual his brother's smile was too blinding to allow him to pretend being mad for long. For all Kazumi had the looks and background of a cool and handsome shoujo manga love interest, Kazuma honestly thought he had the aura of a plucky heroine.  
His taste for cute cafés definitely did nothing to counter that impression.  
“I'm sorry to have kept you waiting,” Kazumi said, catching up with him, and Kazuma once more had to come to terms with the fact that no, he'd never be able to really be mad at him. You just didn't get angry at Kazumi.  
“It's fine—let's just go before my fingers fall off.”  
They walked, chatting—Kazumi wanted to know how school was going, how his team was going, and Kazuma quickly dodged the subject of school (he'd started trying his best again, and was getting results that surprised even him, but some wounds don't close that easily, and boasting about it or even letting others know made him nervous and guilty) and instead focused on how Taiyou seemed to have acquired a suitor—and a loud one, at that.  
“I swear, every time we try to meet up at the shop, he's there. He even challenged me to a duel one time. Not a cardfight, a _duel_.”  
“… maybe he _did_ mean with swords.”  
“I honestly wondered, but no, he had the deck and everything.” He sighed. “I don't know what he has against me.”  
“Well, Taiyou does care a lot about you.”  
“He cares about Chrono too? But that kid looks scared of Chrono for some reason.”  
“Hmmm, how strange.” Kazumi paused. “Speaking of Chrono…”  
“Yeah?”  
“Would you happen to know what his favourite kinds of sweets are?”  
“… I don't think I've ever _seen_ him eating sweets. He likes ice cream, I guess?”  
“Oh… is that so…”  
“… _why_?” he asked, suddenly suspicious.  
“Oh, nothing too crucial. I just prefer to know things like this in case I invite all three of you someday.”  
“Huh, well, he likes coffee and green tea a lot. Maybe some coffee jelly or something?”  
“Hm, that's a good idea. Thank you.”  
He beamed again.  
“… y'welcome.”  
It took him another minute to fully figure out what still felt off, and another to decide whether he should ask why he didn't also ask Taiyou's, but by the time he was about to, they'd reached the café, and the promise of _heat_ and sensation returning to his nose and fingers took over the front of his mind, and five minutes and a cup of hot chocolate later, he'd completely forgotten.

The question stayed forgotten, in the end, until almost two weeks later, when he walked into Card Capital 2 and found Chrono glaring at a pile of elegantly wrapped boxes that he'd put down on his side of the counter.  
Right. Valentine's day. There _had_ been quite a lot of gossiping and broken hearts and boasting from some of the guys in his class.  
“Someone's popular,” he smirked, leaning against the counter.  
“Oh. Kazuma. Okay, maybe _you_ can help me figure this out.”  
“What, what you're gonna do with all that chocolate? I can help out.”  
“I mean—maybe—no, wait, that's rude to the people sending it. Anyway, hear me out.”  
“I'm listening.”  
Chrono picked up the pile and set it in front of Kazuma. It really was impressive. Not in number, but _all_ of these looked incredibly fancy and—was that one french? It could have just been the name, but the label was in French too.  
“Okay. So. This one,” Chrono started, pointing to the first box, a simple black box with a silver ribbon, “was in my locker at school, so there's no real question who sent it.”  
Kazuma snickered.  
“You sure it's not a girl from our school?”  
“The only girl from our school who knows I exist is Kumi, and _she_ gave me hers in person this morning so I'd be sure to remember who they were from on white day,” Chrono said, picking up another smaller and more colourful box from his bag.  
“Classic—wait, why didn't _I_ get any? She's in my class!”  
“Maybe she didn't think you'd get her something back?”  
“I would too, I have standards.” He slumped forward further on the counter. “Curse you and your famous baking skills. I bet that's what it's about.”  
He didn't even particularly care about Valentine's day, and Kumi was mostly just a friend through Chrono and Tokoha. But he liked chocolate, damnit.  
Maybe he should go treat himself now the day was past and the prices would hopefully drop.  
“Okay, so let's assume you're right and this one's Ibuki. What about the others?”  
“ _This_ one I know,” Chrono continued, pointing to the Conspicuously French box, “because Jaime brought it directly to my house and flirted with my aunt _again_.”  
“… wait, so he's getting chocolate for _you_ but flirting with your _aunt_?”  
“I think he knows she got kinda flattered the first time and just decided to keep going.”  
“Imagine having that kind of confidence,” Kazuma sighed.  
“And that brings us to the third one and… that's where I'm stumped, honestly.”  
“How'd you get that one?”  
“It got delivered here. Shin had it waiting for me when I got here. The delivery man didn't say anything either and there's no letter or card or anything.”  
“What's the point of having it delivered anonymously?”  
“I don't _know_!”  
“Any more hints?”  
“Nope. I opened it earlier to check, but there's nothing inside it either. I've been by that shop before though, and their prices are, uh, out of my range.”  
“… are you _sure_ it's not Shion?”  
“If Shion was trying to flirt with me,” Chrono said with what looked like a slight shudder, “he wouldn't wait for Valentine's day. And he wouldn't be too shy to do it anonymously.”  
“… okay you have a point.” He sighed again, slumping on the counter completely. Shit, he was _really_ craving chocolate now. “Why don't you just taste it? Maybe you'll figure it out later, or they'll come out and ask what you thought about then and then we'll both feel really stupid for missing the Important Hint you were supposed to get.”  
“… maybe.” He opened the box again, then parted the delicate sheets of coloured paper covering the chocolates, picking a rose of very dark chocolate out of its slot. “I feel almost bad eating these. Well, here goes nothing.”  
He brought the chocolate rose to his lips and bit half of it, then tasted it for a few seconds without even seeming to chew.  
And then his eyes widened in surprise and pleasure.  
“Matcha.” He closed his eyes for a second, then swallowed. “I didn't notice cause the chocolate's so dark, you can't see the colour—and it's _really subtle_ , just the perfect balance—”  
Kazuma made a face.  
“One of those really bitter chocolates, huh?”  
“Hey, I like it. I could eat a few of those, actually. The sweet ones make me feel sick if I eat more than one.”  
“Figures—” His brain finally caught on to the bell his memory had been ringing incessantly for the last few minutes. “… actually. Do me a favour, try a different one.”  
“Huh?”  
“Trust me.”  
“Uh, sure?” He picked a perfect square with gold lace barely etched on its surface, and tasted it. “… coffee. Man, they're so _good_.”  
He picked a third one, blind to the crisis Kazuma was currently having.  
“This one has cocoa bean chunks in it—Kazuma? Are you okay?”  
Kazuma tried to put any words together that weren't 'just so we're clear, I'm _never_ calling you big brother'.  
“… what's the opposite of having a type?”  
“… being really open-minded?”  
“No, not that, I mean the opposite like. If it's the type that has you. Like having a type but they're the ones who like you.”  
“What are you talking about?”  
“Chrono. Who _else_ do we know with that kind of money. And I don't mean Tokoha—maybe she could afford it but we both know she'd buy it for herself.”  
Chrono squinted at him for a few moments before his eyes suddenly widened.  
“ _Kazumi?_ ”  
“He asked me what you liked—can't believe _that_ 's what it was for.”  
“Oh.”  
They stared at each other in silence. After a few moments, Chrono silently put the second half of his chocolate in his mouth.  
Kazumi really knew how to make an impression.  
“… so what _is_ it with you and guys with long white hair. Or long platinum hair. You know what I mean.”  
“Believe it or not, I really didn't do it on purpose.”  
“… you're not _dating_ any of them, right?” Had Chrono been dating his big brother this entire time, under his nose? He wasn't sure he wouldn't have an existential crisis.  
Chrono looked away, blushing slightly.  
“No.”  
He was fidgeting slightly, too, and that wasn't something he did when he was _nervous _—frustration, then. So he _did___ want to. Which of the three it was, Kazuma didn't really want to know.  
If it was even _one_ —Chrono was too full of _attention_ for everyone and sometimes Kazuma was surprised that he wasn't already juggling a bunch of relationships.  
“So what are you gonna do about it?” he asked.  
“Uh, figure out what I can make for each one for white day? It's gotta be something they like…”  
He trailed off, clearly already planning which personalised delicacy he could make to pay back each of these equally awkward gifts. Kazuma sighed.  
“… see, this is _exactly_ why they're all falling for you.”

**Author's Note:**

> 1) Jaime's chocolates were actually Belgian, not French, but implying either of these two would be good enough at reading the labels to figure that out  
> 2) Kumi did, in fact, get Tokoha some chocolates too.


End file.
